Rob Scallon – One Fret Challenge

Before I get started… if you haven’t heard about the crazy give away happening right now, you need to check this great give away by Thunder Road Guitars and the Bass Shop Seattle. We’re talking $1500 worth of gear that is up for grabs. Get some! Details can be found here. Don’t miss out on this one people!!!

Today I wanted to talk about something that is not pedal related, but goes into some guitar nerdery. I love restricting myself to find inspiration. I’ve done this with art. I’ve done this with guitar. I’ve done this with writing. The concept, sometimes options themselves limits or stifles the creative process. If you try to limit yourself, something great may come of it. Sometimes simple is amazing, and if you’ve become too focused on complexity, you forget that.

Yesterday, I came across this cool video by Rob Scallon (Chicago, IL based guitarist). He made an interesting challenge video. To play a song using only one fret on the guitar. By using the single fret his scale was limited, but still usable and he had to work with string bends to incorporate other notes. I was quite impressed. Check it out:

Let me know what you think by commenting below. Also, I would like to hear if you’ve tried to restrict the parameters yourself to get yourself some inspiration.